05 December 2023: Benge; A Prog Rock Christmas; Sonologyst

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The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites. (links below) 

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I will also be hosting a (Mostly) Country Christmas on the Rural Electric show 

right after the Island Messenger at 7 pm until 9 pm.

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The View From Vega

Benge

Ben Edwards, better known by his pseudonym Benge, has been exploring the sonic possibilities of electronic instruments since he was a young boy, in the1970s. After graduating from art school in 1990 he set up his own music studio and started recording his unique blend of experimental electronica, culminating in his debut album "Electro-Orgoustic Music" and the formation of Expanding Records in 1995. Since then he has released dozens of albums as Benge, as well as collaborating with various luminaries from the electronic music world on many other album projects. He has formed several notable and ongoing bands such as John Foxx & The Maths, Wrangler (with Stephen Mallinder / Cabaret Voltaire and Phil Winter / Tunng), Fader (with Neil Arthur / Blancmange), and his most recent project Creep Show (Wrangler + John Grant). Benge's creative output now centres around his Memetune Studio Complex, located in one of the UKs remotest moorland locations, writing and producing his various music projects as well as making video art and TV programmes about his activities.

“The View From Vega”, his debut solo album on the DiN imprint, is primarily an ambient suite of tracks inspired by the space-music typically produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It uses a selection of vintage synthesisers, sequencers and FX units to provide a fertile sonic landscape to explore. The idea was to use simple sequences (using both analogue and digital units), sustained synthesiser pads and electronic piano improvisations, alongside various ancient delay, flange and reverb units. The beautiful, warm quality of the tones that exude from such instruments are very evident on the six tracks that slowly unfold their oscillations in organic, melodic soundscapes.

An unashamedly vintage sounding album in all its analogue glory, “The View From Vega” is released both as a 180g Vinyl edition and a Digipak CD with stunning artwork from Wendy Carroll that matches the music perfectly. 

credits

released October 6, 2023

Written and recorded by Benge at Memetune Studios, England, February 2023.
Mastered by Benge April 2023. 

Our thanks to DiN label owner Ian Boddy for providing us with a copy of this release.

Studio blog: myblogitsfullofstars.blogspot.com

"This is a primarily ambient suite of tracks inspired by the space-music typically produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It uses a selection of vintage synthesisers, sequencers and FX units to provide a fertile sonic landscape to explore. The idea was to use simple sequences (using both analogue and digital units), sustained synthesiser pads and electronic piano improvisations, alongside various ancient delay, flange and reverb units”.

The equipment used was as follows:

Synthesisers:
Moog Modular IIIC
Polyfusion Modular
Roland SH5 / System 100 / Piano-Plus-70
Yamaha CP30 / SS30
EMS VCS3
ARP Chroma

Sequencers:
Roland MC4
Moog Dual 960 (Cloned)
EMS TKS

FX Units:
Dynacord TAM21 Stereo Flanger/Doubler
Dynacord DRP16 Reverb
Dynacord DRS78 Reverb / Delay
Polyfusion Modular Phase unit
Electro-Harmonix Smallstone Phaser

Tags

ambient em electronic electronic music electronica downtempo modular synth modularsynth vintage modular Sunderland

 

 

 

We'll be playing various tracks from the 2019 release, A Prog Rock Christmas.

 

 

Shortwave Spectrum

Sonologyst

 We'll end tonight's shows with a track from this new release from Sonologyst.

The new Sonologyst "sonic documentary" delves into the secretive realm of shortwave transmissions; a chronicle of clandestine shortwave transmissions culled from a span of nearly four decades (1982-2021). These mysterious transmissions - repetitive voices, signals, sound pulses, short pieces of music - were collated and edited to compose the tracks of the main album.

Immersed in an isolating fog of dark ambient, deep drone music and cinematic sound art, it provides an auditory exploration of the ongoing Cold War. Originating from covert radio stations engaged in military and espionage endeavours, the tracks unveil a hidden sonic landscape of strategic communication.

The second disc, in its extensive presentation, provides a deeper immersion into these enigmatic broadcasts. Each recording remains unaltered, accompanied only by a ghostly drone. It offers an unfiltered glimpse into the world of clandestine communication, where words are transmitted beneath the radar and in the shadowy confines of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Double CD in a matt-finish gatefold ecopak with graphic design by Abby Helasdottir.

Watch album teaser (YouTube) by Abby...  more

credits

released November 23, 2023 

Our thanks to Raffaele Pezzella for providing us with a copy of this release.

REVIEWS

Nine Circles
ninecircles.co/2023/12/03/rainbows-in-the-dark-sonologyst-shortwave-spectrum

Vital Weekly (excerpt review)

Raffaele Pezzella's musical project Sonologyst doesn't need much introduction. I reviewed several of his works and liked it a lot. You can find an indication of the source material in the title, shortwave sounds, and, in particular, from what is called number stations. This takes us back to the days of the Cold War when secret services worldwide used radio transmissions to communicate with agents in the field—voices reading groups of numbers, Morse codes or otherwise random bleeps and hard to intercept and block. The Cold War may have ended, but the information notes that in recent years, Chinese, Korean and Indian Numbers Stations have been picked up, and I assume these are at the core of the music here and not the 4CD set released by Irdial in the 1990s. It would make a damn good book to describe the use of radio (waves) as a musical instrument and the history thereof, as I believe that, next to the mouth, the radio is one of easiest accessible instruments available for any would-be musicians (if you already wrote such a book, then let me know). That is not to say that it's easy to play great music based on radio waves, but Sonologyst is a true master in crafting deep, dark, and highly ambient music with that ghostly atmosphere lingering in the background. As much as Number Stations are mysterious, so is this music. Oddly enough, maybe, there are six tracks on the first CD, somewhere between five and fifteen minutes, and the oddity is that these are more minimal than the forty-two-minute piece on the second CD. Each of these six stays in stasis and move within the given parameters. The long one, 'Shortwaves', is a piece that moves between many stations, picking up spoken word, classical music, pop music and whatever else along the way, against a backdrop of drones. It shows that one can do many things with radio waves, which is why I'm still fascinated by it. (FdW)

Avant Music News
avantmusicnews.com/2023/11/18/amn-reviews-sonologyst-shortwave-spectrum-2023-cold-spring-records

Luminous Dash
luminousdash.be/reviews/sonologyst-shortwave-spectrum-cold-spring/

This Is Darkness
Well, this is very cool – an album of dark ambient / deep drone, inspired by and using edited shortwave radio broadcasts from the mysterious ‘number stations’ that during the cold war (and beyond) transmitted coded messages for agents deep undercover in enemy nations. The resulting album is a collection of haunting and otherworldly tracks unlike anything I’ve heard in a long time. As a bonus, Sonologyst has included a 7th track that is less filtered – it contrasts beautifully with the six expertly crafted tracks that came before it, and provides an even deeper experience of these ghostly broadcasts. Highly recommended!




Published by Cold Spring Records
Sound, sampling, processing and mastering by Sonologyst.
Equipment: analogue synthesizers, shortwaves radio receiver, analogue tape recorders.
Mastered by Sonologyst.
Graphic design by Abby Helasdottir.

license

some rights reserved

tags

Tags

ambient dark ambient drone ambient experimental electronic music field recordings Italy

 

09 May 2023: Ian Boddy - Modulations III (DiNDDL31)

 KMXT is live broadcasting the Kodiak City Council work session which may run past 9 pm.  

The show will begin as soon as the work session ends or 9 pm if the meeting ends early.

Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.

The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites. (links below) 

We urge you to support the musicians you hear on FreeForm Radio.

 Modulations III  (DiNDDL31)

 

The Modulations series is a way for DiN label boss Ian Boddy to showcase his many, varied modular synth concerts and events. The first two released in 2020 & 2021 were released in digital format on the DiNDDL series as well as limited vinyl pressings in conjunction with Greek label Kinetik Records. However all live events came to a sudden end with the Covid pandemic and Boddy like the majority of musicians had to postpone any further Iive shows until this health crisis dissipated.

Resuming toward the end of 2021 Modulations III spans just over three hours of Boddy’s recent modular synth events with concerts in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. There are also tracks from an art exhibition opening, an outdoor performance and an exclusive track for the Werra Foxma label magazine.

The core of the instrumentation in these tracks are Boddy’s mobile Eurorack cases but this was bolstered by gear from Buchla, Serge and Moog as well as an array of pedals and effects and with the Liverpool concert his beautiful French Connection Ondes Martenot style keyboard.

As ever Boddy builds audio landscapes that organically build, drift and vanish into the ether. Analogue bass lines grow and act as a bedrock for a myriad of scintillating higher register sequencer parts. Mysterious atmospheres evolve and mutate with graceful beauty. Soft focus orchestral string sections emerge from dark spaces and bring light and calm to the music. The audience is taken on a journey which follows a different path on every performance.

A listening guide detailing each track and its associated release alongside exclusive photos accompanies the Bandcamp download. 

credits

released May 5, 2023

Barry West for curating the Earth Requiem show at the Washington Arts Centre.
Tony Adamo and Chris Wave for organising the Seventh Wave Festival in Birmingham.
Alan Hempsall for organising the Subliminal Impulse Festival in Manchester.
Frazer Brown from Werra Foxma.
Neil Campbell for organising the concert at the Capstone Theatre in Liverpool.
Phil Booth for the Seventh Wave concert photo.
Wendy Carroll for cover artwork, all the other concert photos and running the DiN Merch stand.
All of you who attended the shows and concerts.

license

all rights reserved

ambient berlin school em electronic electronic music electronica dark ambient downtempo modular synth space music Sunderland